First Fish

Same venue for me.
Shamefully, a Flounder, foul hooked with a treble.
No excuse, with the exception of being 12 and that was the way you fished, or so I was told at the time.

Learned the errors of my ways and shifted to salted Lug and had a legitimate Eel out of the Harbour soon after.

Spent many a summer trying to catch a fish in Brookes' Field pond. Failed dismally!
First freshwater fish was a small Perch from the boot of a submerged Vauxhall Viva in The Brickie.

First fish from a boat a Mackerel onboard Peter Campini's boat. Striker?

Happy Days!!!

First fish was when I was about 4yrs old went with my dad to A lake near our house in England I was fishing with A rod made out of A tank areal with line tied to the end I was perched on An old log that went out into the water approx 20ft it snapped my line it was massive ,Looking back now it was probably about A pound in weight , MY first sea fish was A dog fish when I was ten years old fishing mackerel strips of the rocks at brig house bay in Scotland on holiday on the same rod I used when I was 4yrs old sadly the rod got broken that many times over the years by the age of about 12 it had lost about A foot its final death was when we used it on our inshore dingy fishing for mackerel and my older brother decided to put A bigger weight on it (a pound )and it snapped in half ,I was devastated ITS strange looking back I remember I used to go to the beach first thing in the morning and dig lug worms with A potato fork And collect cockles + periwinkles and walk back to the caravan about 3miles laden down with my spoils we would put the cockles + periwinkles in a large pan +boil them for tea the worms were for the flaties in the estuary I would get A bottle of pop A sandwich and my dad would drop me at the beach were I would stay for the day till he picked me up before tea strange looking back now I always caught loads of flounders + the odd place on just A small 1oz bomb with A hook tied to the end of the line +a large split shot to stop the bomb getting near the hook , how things change when we get older ,Just got back in from fishing I had my usual x10 packs of fresh large black lug x2 century MTL rods x2 abu reels fished x2 pulley pennel rigs loaded with x3 lug + x2 party squid and I blanked not even A bite but I still enjoy it as much as I did when I was younger

Mine was a dab off Colwyn Bay pier, my grandad started me off in about 1959 when we moved to North Wales, the tackle would not be believed in this day and age, 7ft cane rods and centre pin reels!
Piers were our only option, but with Rhyl, Colwyn Bay, Llandudno and Bangor to choose from we never knew what a blank was.

Tony Lever wrote:

We introduced the perch into the brickie in the late 70's (highly illegal) so you can thank me for your first coarse fish.

Wasn't your Vauxhall Viva too was it?

A snapper in Cuba !

first coarse fish a gudgeon on the trent and mersey canal when i was knee high to a grass hopper. first sea fish codling at colwyn bay at low water about 3 pound . Fluke our what . That was when i was in my early twenties . Happy days p s in all the years sea fishing at colwyn bay since my codling .. only had codling about 6 oz since lol. This is a true story i promise i took a good mate of mine about 6 years after i had my codling he caught a 3 pounder in the same place low water by the arches how flukey that .

AHHH tank aeriel rods I remember them, every high street had an army surplus shop and Bridlington beach ( and doubtless many others) had DUKWs doing trips out into the sea.

Somewhere I've a pic of my first boat fishing trip, I was literally a baby in my mother's arms in a hired rowing boat outside Bridlington Harbour, my dad is on the oars and swinging in a dab, not a life saving device to be seen -I don't suppose health and safety was a big deal to those who lived through WW2

If I find the pic I'll post it.

First fish I recall being mine was off the harbour wall at Bridlington, I couldn't see over the wall but I'd be about 4 years old and vividly remember bait wrapped in newspaper and Dad getting me to reel in a flattie that seemed absolutely huge at the time.

First rod of my own was a Milbro glass fibre coarse rod for Christmas, went fishing at Langold Lake on Boxing Day and I caught a tiny Rudd or something, snow was on the ground and I dropped the flask.. then there was my first pair of jeans, first air rifle, first shotgun, first girlfriend, first motorbike, first car, first divorce...

I caught my first fish when on holiday on sunnyvale holiday park near
the blue bridge when i was 10yrs old my dad bought me a fishing set and
some lug from the blueshark.We set off to the harbour and after catching
a ton of crabs i caught a small eel and that was me hooked

My first course fish was a perch

there were rumors of some one catching whiting out of it x2 years ago but only small pin ones

This is a great thread!
Loving all the memories.
You can just feel the passion pouring out from each account.

I'm still waiting for Simons first fish story, which I believe may well be at a very young age.

Oh, why do they dain the Marine lake every year?

caught my first fish when i was 4 yrs old fishing with my dad and his mates all they let me have was a stick and some line with a match stick for a float with 1 maggot i caught 9 sticklebacks and i had the last laugh they all blanked
been hooked ever since then
now i fish with fly rods /sea rods and i still do the odd bit of coarse fishing

its a pity they wont teach fishing in schools as i think if more kids got the chance to try fishing then our sport could become much better through education (just my thoughts)
cheers joe

joker44 wrote:

caught my first fish when i was 4 yrs old fishing with my dad and his mates all they let me have was a stick and some line with a match stick for a float with 1 maggot i caught 9 sticklebacks

That sounds better gear than the stuff you use nowadays mate !

I,me with joker on my first fish must have been about 5 years old tackle was bit of cane cotton tied on the end, bent knob pin for hook and a bit of lobworm for bait, venue local disused canal. i was in heaven if i managed to catch a redbreast (male stickleback), O so long ago happy days.

Tony Lever wrote:

He's back, although there's no set date for the TV programme.
http://mrcrabtreegoesfishing.com/

It's just been trailed,

Quest Thursday at 9pm

The first fish i caught were Minnows in the river Cherwell which flowed through the Oxfordshire village where i was brought up
Kept them in a jam jar How cruel was that I know better these days
First sea fish was a Mackerel, like so many other anglers im sure

Of my three lads only two enjoy the sport, Jack likes fishing for pleasure as do I and Hari prefers the matches these days since he joined
Colwyn Bay Victoria Sea Angling Club last year

No photos of my first fish but here's Jacks



And here's Hari's



Just need to get the eldest into it now although he has fished and bagged up on Whiting during the silly season of Autumn when the Whiting are
almost suicidal, but decided it wasn't for him and no amount of persuasion or bribes can alter this so perhaps its a lost cause
Never mind it just means there's more for the rest of us

Tony Lever wrote:

Has anybody been following the new "Mr Crabtree" series on TV, and what are your opinions.


Personally I found it a bit slow. Maybe if they do another series and include sea and fly fishing as well, it might be a bit more interesting.

All in favour of Fishing progs but it was a bit slow, there again the real thing is slower still.
Seemed to me the "Peters" didn't need "Crabtree" getting in their way though.

Notbad wrote:

Tony Lever wrote:

Has anybody been following the new "Mr Crabtree" series on TV, and what are your opinions.


Personally I found it a bit slow. Maybe if they do another series and include sea and fly fishing as well, it might be a bit more interesting.

All in favour of Fishing progs but it was a bit slow, there again the real thing is slower still.
Seemed to me the "Peters" didn't need "Crabtree" getting in their way though.

I thought it was poor too much banging on about crabtree and not enough fishing or
talking about rigs and fish species i think he needs to take a leaf out of robson green's book
on how to make a fishing program